Irritum Ieiunitas
by Hidden Guardian
Summary: When you've spent over a decade wandering in the Realm of Darkness, finding something new, something surprising, something with a spark might be the thing to bring a bit of excitement back to your life. Vanitas/Repliku pairing.


Disclaimer: I don't own anything involved in Kingdom Hearts. Obviously.

~ Okay, so I started thinking to myself, 'Well. Sora and Riku, of course. Roxas and Axel, and even if Ven and Terra isn't so blatant, it's still there. But what about Vanitas?' I've considered throwing him into a threesome with Ven and Terra, but that's just a little awkward to write. Then I went down a list of every male in KH and couldn't find _anybody_ (or nobody!) for Vanitas. Then I realized I was forgetting a male….

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IRRITUM IEIUNITAS

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_What kind of monster do you have to be for even the darkness to fear you?_

Vanitas explored the Realm of Darkness unhesitatingly, watching shadows scurry away with every step he took. Oh, they knew. Vanitas, source of the unversed. Vanitas, the original heartless.

The sound of his boots echoed in the eternal darkness that surrounded him. Too many stupid heartless. He knew there were intelligent heartless – Terra-possessed-Xehanort's heartless had apparently caused no end of trouble – but the only ones Vanitas found were cowardly little blobs of nothing, easier to destroy with Void Gear.

At least the Unversed didn't spawn in the Realm of Darkness. Which was good. Because many of the Unversed he had distributed in the worlds had been borne of frustration. And Vanitas was very frustrated.

"Is this entire place full of loser Shadows and stupid, weak heartless? Come on! Can no one give me a challenge? I don't know how long I'm going to be stuck here and I'm not going to spend my time bored!"

He waited, gold eyes trained straight ahead, but nothing came. No entertainment to be found, then.

But to his surprise, he did see something approaching out of the darkness. And he was even more surprised as it got closer.

"You. The boy Terra picked to inherit his keyblade. Riku, was it?"

The silver-haired young man was almost iridescent in the darkness: pale skin, silver hair, glowing blue-green eyes. His outfit was similar to Vanitas' own, blue instead of red with a white skirt instead of black.

"Not quite."

"Oh?" Vanitas smirked and spun Void Gear in his fingers. "You look like him."

"I would think so. You look like Sora."

"I would think so," he mimicked cruelly. "So if you're not Terra's little pet…?"

The silver-haired male smirked. "Do you know Organization XIII?"

Vanitas considered it and said, "Kid, I've been stuck in here for… let's see, coming up on twelve years now, I guess. I barely know shit about what's going on out there."

"Long story short, then. A crazy scientist cloned that brat you're talking about and, well, here I am."

Vanitas raised a black eyebrow and considered the male. "A clone of a keybearer. That's interesting. So how did you get in here?"

"Tried to kill Sora. Tried to kill Riku. Failed at both, so…."

He laughed and said, "You couldn't beat those two little pussies? And here I thought I'd found someone who could offer me a challenge."

"Those two are tougher than they seem. Besides, you're in here too, asshole."

"Tried to kill Terra, Aqua, and Ven."

"Hmph, that took balls."

"You know about them?"

"Only rumors. A companion of my creator was quite well-read." The clone shrugged and eyed Vanitas judgingly. "So, you're looking for a fight."

"I am."

"What do I call you?"

"You mean when you're begging me for mercy? Vanitas."

"Guess it's weird if I'm Riku, too. But Riku Replica is pretty long and graceless."

Vanitas smirked and said, "Repliku."

"That sounds stupid."

"Fitting for you then, idiot."

"Are you goading me into a fight?"

"Yes," Vanitas admitted openly. "Am I succeeding?"

"Yes."

Vanitas smirked and raised his Void Gear and the newly-dubbed Repliku mirrored his stance with a weapon that looked like a demon wing. "Fair warning, I'm fast."

"I'm pretty aggressive, so watch your back."

Vanitas grinned and lunged toward the clone, intending to give it everything he had.


End file.
